Sonos has filed another patent lawsuit against Google, alleging that giant search infringes five wireless patents across the Nest and Chromecast product line. The move comes on the eve of Google's hardware hardware event on September 30, with the announcement of the Chromecast and Nest smart speaker and new Pixel phones.
Sonos filed its first patent lawsuit against Google in January in a California court and the International Trade Commission; The state lawsuit was suspended while the ITC reached a decision on whether to block Google products that allegedly violated market rules. The new lawsuit was filed only in a federal court in the Western District of Texas - a recent patent for a patent case - and it represents an aggressive approach from Sonos.
"We think it's important to show the depth and breadth of Google's copy," said Eddie Lazarus, a law officer at Sonos. "We showed them the 100 patent charts which we said were infringing, all to no avail."
Google, of course, says it will fight it; put Sonos in the first position. "Sonos has made misleading statements about our working history," said Google spokesman Jose Castaneda. “Our technology and devices are designed independently. We strongly deny their claims, and we will be defending them. ”
Sonos has long voiced the strong talk of big platform companies like Google pushing for small companies. In particular, Sonos suspects that tech giants tend to copy technology because the penalties are much lower compared to the benefits of filling the market with cheap products for leaders and gaining market share. Chief executive Patrick Spence testified to House House antitrust committee earlier this year of the so-called "effective violation" - and the new case is an indication of how much the company thinks it should be reduced.
"Breaking the law in the right way is a very serious matter," said Lazarus. "That's why we went to ITC now in Texas - to shorten the process and find a solution as soon as possible." (Clearly, "short" is a limited term in copyright law - Lazarus estimates that this new trial will take two years.)
Copyright in Sonos' first court covered the foundations of wireless audio systems: setting, synchronizing play, creating stereo pairs. Sonos is very confident in those copyrights because he had previously accused Denon of breaking the law and won - Lazarus calls them "tested in battle."
The patents in this new case have recently passed - one of which was granted two weeks ago, although it includes work that began in 2011 - and are related to modern wireless speaker features, such as controlling music streaming from a second device such as a phone, default EQ speaker, and speaker group management and reset. "zone scene" Many of them look like patents on the basics of smart speaker controls - setting the volume on the speaker from your phone, for example - but Lazarus says he's not worried about Google challenging them.
"If they want to challenge patents for obvious reasons, we believe we will win," he said. "We believe that many people who are involved in wireless home noise today are violating our patents in some way." Lazaru says Sonos has given Amazon similar ownership claims and hopes it will be resolved. “We were ahead of our time. This technology was not a common place when Sonos created. "
Of course, the other case will also strengthen the relationship between Google and Sonos, which supports Google's assistant on its speakers, but Sonos has tried to prevent legal warfare without product negotiations. "The goal is to have a good relationship with Google, where they see the value of our inventions and work on new products for future customers," said Lazarus. "We have tried to keep both sides of the house apart."
"If you look at the history of the Sonos, we are very reluctant to sue," said Lazarus. "This is the final choice - the number of cases we have started, you can rely on one hand."
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